Nigeria church still bans women clergy

March 25, 2005|By Tribune news services.

KADUNA, Nigeria — The Church of Nigeria, one of the largest in world Anglicanism, is maintaining its ban on women clergy.

Archbishop Peter Akinola announced that the governing Standing Committee decided the Anglican denomination he heads "shall not commence the ordination of women," but added that the issue may be revisited in the future.

A separate communique responded to a February meeting in Northern Ireland, where Akinola and 34 other top leaders dealt with international disagreements on homosexuality within the Anglican Communion. The Nigerians commended the Northern Ireland meeting for "standing up for orthodoxy in Christian faith and morals" in asking America's Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada to withdraw from upcoming world Anglican meetings because of their liberal actions on gay issues.

The Nigerians interpreted that action to be a suspension of the U.S. and Canadian churches over their stance on human sexuality and prayed that this "will bring genuine repentance on the side of the erring churches."